Friday, April 11, 2008

Planting Annuals & the F- word.

The area directly in front of the house was over grown with ivy. When we moved in, we clean it out a bit removing beer bottles, chip bags and candy bar wrappers.

You know---English Ivy loves Doritos, Snickers, and Bud. Right?

After several "treatments" the ivy is finally gone, leaving a 6" deep layer of dead vines. I used the metal rake to remove the vines and cleaned out the area down to the dirt or soil. (It's dirt to me. )

I found several things.

A horse shoe. --Hey that's Lucky-Right?
A small hook, a battery, a marble, a hose thingy, 1/2 a plastic Easter egg, a baseball pendant, and a hanging basket holder. Woo Hooo!!!

I cleaned up the edge and began to add some of the bricks, that scattered are all over the yard in random places. Then I planted a few annuals.

I need to fill in with some more plants. However, for next week the weather girl is talking about the F- word... (No, not that F-word.)

F....F....Fro...Frost.

So, I decided to stop there for now and spread out some pine straw. The straw is deep enough I can cover up the plants next week with it and use a painter's tarp over it all. I should be able to keep everybody warm and alive.



I still need to gather up some additional bricks and finish cleaning up the edge but as the neighbor said yesterday afternoon, "It looks so much better."

Those scraggly bushes in the back are camellias. From the size of the roots, they look to be original. They are recovering from ivy suffocation, but I think they are going to make it.


*Saturday morning update*

This morning the weather girl is saying the other "F-word".... F....Fr...Freeze..... in the 20's.
Burr... I know some of you are getting snow, which really stinks in April, but this is Georgia people.

I just washed all our washable coats and have them ready to put away for the summer.

7 comments:

John H-B said...

I also have an ivy problem - what method did you use to get rid of the vines without killing the camellias?

Marilyn said...

I like that you're "keeping everybody warm and alive" - very heroic! Love the horshoe - keep it in the garden for luck.

Anonymous said...

i have all my vegetables in the garage because i'm scared to plant them before monday because of the predicted frost. boo!!!

Jen said...

Hi John, thanks for dropping by.
I pulled the ivy away from the camellias several times. I then used a round up type spray from the farmer's supply store. I should have covered the camellias up with garbage bags, but I didn't, I just carefully sprayed on a non windy day. I had to spray several times. And wait. It takes a while for the actual vines to die.

Thanks Marilyn, Sometimes I give the plants names, like someone give the kitchen utensils names. ;)

Natalie, My tomatoes and several other plants are on the front porch and I plan to bring them in.

Sandy said...

The plants look so nice... Is that colleus (probably spelled the wrong) and begonias?

Jen said...

Yes Sandy. Also some "creeping jenny" . A fun little ground cover plant.

Jennifer said...

Snow here! I haven't planted anything yet because of it.

I'm planning to divide some perenials in the next week or two, though...

The garden is looking good!~